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More than 100 people packed into the Belsize library to voice their concerns at the council’s plans |
Angry readers shatter library silence
‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it’ protest over controversial plans to bring in self-service machines
LIBERAL Democrat library chief Flick Rea said it was the only way forward. Library users said: don’t fix what’s not broken.
On Monday, a stormy meeting failed to calm fears over plans to introduce self-service machines in libraries.
The meeting, hosted by Camden’s Public Library Users Group at Belsize Library, was billed as a discussion forum about what the technology was and what it could mean for the borough.
Instead, it turned out to be a chance for nearly 100 readers who packed into the small building in Antrim Road to give the borough’s library chiefs a bloody nose at a perceived failure to consult them over the introduction of the machines and a lack of information.
Plans to cut librarians’ jobs – about 13 are due to go – and changes to their job title and duties were also cause for concern.
Belsize Village poet Alan Brownjohn warned the three library chiefs present: “What I think has worried people is the fear that libraries as we know and love them are being compromised by the application of a technology and different philosophy that doesn’t really understand what libraries are.”
Camden history enthusiast Rob Inglis, who uses the archive service in Holborn, said: “Libraries aren’t broke so for God’s sake don’t fix them.”
Lee Montague, of Friends of Heath Library, voiced the concerns of many when he asked why machines were necessary, while Ian Marshall Fisher repeatedly asked why users had not been consulted on their introduction.
Malcolm Holmes, former archivist at Holborn Library, who was awarded an MBE for his work, criticised the use of consultants who were paid thousands of pounds for their “deep-diving” research which, he claimed, did not include a visit to a library.
Gospel Oak library campaigner Rhoda Koenig took exception to the proposed change of job title from “librarian” to “customer services operative,” warning that they would become shop assistants.
Dartmouth Park resident Patrick Le Fevre complained about the lack of information available about the council’s plans.
He had been unable to get hold of a copy of the library review and was told by Fiona Dean, Camden’s assistant head of culture, that was because it was published as an “internal” staff document.
She accepted, however, the council had “missed an effective communication route”.
It also emerged that plans to sell parts of Holborn Library in Theobald’s Road and cut posts from its much-loved local studies and archive department had not been discussed with Holborn Library Users Group.
A demand from its chairwoman, Shaku Woodrow, that Cllr Rea consult with them drew an affirmative response.
It was also noted with irony that where machines break down, librarians don’t.
Pointing out that the coin slot at the photocopying machine in Belsize Library had been out of action for months, Robert Ilson, a dictionary writer, said: “Before I had to fish around in my pocket for the correct change, now I do as many copies as I want and go over to the human librarian to pay for what I have done.
They always have change and a smile.”
Cllr Rea said she had listened to what the public had to say about the plans. “I came back from my holidays to a huge pile of letters and I said to Mike [Clarke, libraries chief] and Fiona ‘something has to be done’,” she told the meeting.
By the end of the night it was not clear what that “something” would be, and Cllr Rea was not giving much away.
Referring to the fact that only half the borough uses its libraries, she said: “People complained when we went over to the computer system.”
There were things that needed doing to keep libraries alive, she added.
Cllr Rea is due to make a final decision on the future of libraries on October 28. |
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